Pakistan captain Salman Agha said that his team is ready to take on India in the Super 4 clash in the Asia Cup after a clinical win over UAE. Pakistan beat UAE by 41 runs in their last group clash to seal their spot in the Super 4 stage, where they will face-off with India again on Sunday, September 21 in Dubai.

After a crushing seven-wicket defeat and the no-handshake controversy, there’s massive pressure on Pakistan to put up an improved performance in the upcoming fixture. Following his team’s commanding victory against UAE, Salman Agha said that they’re ready for any challenge in the next fixture against India.

“Yeah, we’re ready for any challenge. We just want to play good cricket, and if we play good cricket like we’ve been playing for the last few months. I think we’ll be good against any side,” said Agha in the post-match presentation.

Furthermore, the Pakistan skipper highlighted his team’s inability to bat well in the middle overs and said that that’s holding them back from posting a challenging total of 170-180.

“We got the job done, but we still need to bat better in the middle over. I think that’s what is concerning for us for a few games now. We need to look at that. We haven’t batted our best yet, but we’re still finding a way to score around 150. If we batted well in the middle over, we probably will end up scoring 170-180, no matter which team against we are playing against. So yeah, the middle overs, if we batted well there, we will be very good,” he added.

Pakistan batters have struggled massively in the tournament so far as they once again had to depend on a late flourish from Shaheen Afridi (29* off 14) to get them to a respectable total of 146/9 in their 20 overs. Opening batter Saim Ayub is yet to open his account, having registered three consecutive ducks in the tournament so far while captain Salman Agha has also failed to get going in the middle order.

Hence, the Men in Green have a lot of issues to fix, heading into another high-pressure fixture against the arch-rivals. The recent incidents in the aftermath of the no handshake controversy have only added fuel to the fire, which adds even more spice to the upcoming encounter.

– Ends

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